Trudeau and O’Toole grilled over mixed messages as campaign nears end,
O’Toole takes Trudeau to task for large rallies
OTTAWA—Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and Conservative Leader Erin O’Toole sought to sharpen their closing arguments of the 2021 federal election campaign on Wednesday, but instead sent out muddled messages.
With days left, Trudeau continued to position his party as the sole choice to get the COVID-19 pandemic under control and rebuild the economy afterwards, but faced criticism of the relatively large rallies his campaign has been holding in recent days, with limited evidence of physical distancing on display as crowds jostle for photos and fist bumps.
The Liberals defend the events, including one in Brampton, saying they’ve been organized in accordance with local public health guidance.
On Wednesday, Trudeau went even further, suggesting that those who are fully vaccinated ought to be able to return to gatherings like political rallies.
The question, he argued, is why anyone would think a Conservative government would be better when that party doesn’t require its candidates to be vaccinated and has candidates who are accused of trafficking in vaccine misinformation, as one was this week.
“The choice between Mr. O’Toole and his Conservatives’ big tent party, which includes anti-vaxxers, versus us that are focused on science and following the rules couldn’t be clearer,” Trudeau said during a campaign event in Halifax.
O’Toole said the choice is whether Canadians want to reward Trudeau for calling an election during a pandemic, and charged that the Liberal rallies are putting his entitlement and privilege on full display.
“That’s Justin Trudeau: the man who lectures you about the rules he isn’t willing to follow himself,” O’Toole said during a campaign stop in Quebec.
“This pattern will only get worse if Trudeau is rewarded for plunging the country into a $600-million election in the middle of a pandemic. This is the question facing Canadians.”
But questions continue to dog O’Toole about what exactly he would do if his Conservatives form the next government.
The latest issue is his promise to scrap the federal carbon levy.
O’Toole has said he would replace the existing rebate sent to consumers with different pricing and a “personal low carbon savings account,” which would allow people to effectively turn those rebates into money they could spend on “green” purchases.
During a meeting with the Star’s editorial board, O’Toole suggested his plan would be optional, and that how and when it might be implemented would be decided by the provinces.
Pressed for further clarity by reporters on Wednesday, O’Toole wouldn’t say whether the current federal carbon levy would still be on the chopping block if the provinces want to keep it, but that his climate change plan remains unchanged from when it was first introduced.
“That is exactly what I said in April when I launched this plan,” O’Toole said during a campaign stop in Quebec’s Saguenay region.
“It’s a very detailed plan to meet our Paris targets and to promote collaboration on a range of issues to pricing carbon to electric vehicles to technology.”
A plan to combat climate change marks one of several ways O’Toole has tried to take the party in a more progressive direction, and later Wednesday he was expected to shore up those credentials further by appearing alongside former Progressive Conservative prime minister Brian Mulroney.
Mulroney’s emergence on the campaign trail comes after decades of staying mostly on the sidelines of federal political life.
Former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper had severed ties with him in 2007 over Mulroney’s business dealings with German lobbyist Karlheinz Schreiber, and it took them years to reconcile in private and in public.
What brought them back together eventually was what O’Toole is after now: advice on how to woo Quebec votes.
Buoyed by what was more or less an endorsement from Quebec Premier François Legault, O’Toole is hoping Mulroney’s support will help siphon off more nationalist voters from the Bloc Québécois fold.
“When Mr. Mulroney was prime minister of Canada, he did many huge things for Canada like the acid rain treaty, the free trade agreement with the U.S. and (rallying other countries to fight) apartheid in South Africa,” said Pierre Paul-Hus, the Conservative candidate in the Quebec riding of Charlesbourg—Haute-St-Charles.
“A lot of people who vote for the Bloc Québécois are former conservatives voters. And the older ones, of course, they voted for Mr. Mulroney. They still love him.”
Speaking at an event in Orford, Que., on Wednesday night, Mulroney said O’Toole had called him a few months ago, when the polls were bad, media coverage was bad, and there was grumbling in the party. O’Toole, he said, asked Mulroney what he thought.
“I said, ‘Erin I think you should be thrilled.’ He said, ‘Why?’ I said, ‘Because that is exactly what they said about me three months before the election in ‘84, when we won the largest majority in the history of Canada.”
Mulroney is the second former prime minister to appear on the campaign; former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien appeared at a rally with Trudeau on Tuesday.
The federal leaders campaigned Wednesday largely in regions where polls suggest races are tight.
Trudeau was in Fredericton, N.B. to campaign alongside former Green MP Jenica Atwin — who defected to his party — while the NDP was on a southwestern Ontario swing.
Trudeau has tried to draw a sharp distinction between his party and the NDP during daily pitches to progressive voters, and his campaign has lately been circulating a graphic claiming that people who vote for New Democrats in certain ridings would be denying the Liberals a chance at overtaking the Tories.
In Essex, near Windsor, Ont., NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said the Liberals trot out that argument every election.
“Don’t be scared. Vote the way your heart tells you, and don’t let anyone tell you you can’t do it,” he said.
“Don’t let anyone tell you that it’s not possible. If enough of you vote New Democrat we can form government, and we will make a big difference in people’s lives.”